Lawsuit filed against federal mining regulations

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox has joined forces with a dozen other AGs from across the U.S. in an effort to stop further regulations for hard rock mining.

The 13 attorney generals filed a lawsuit, claiming new regulations are unneeded. In January, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule that would establish nationwide regulations for hard rock mining.

The proposal would create minimum, federal bonding requirement on all operations.

Fox argues Montana already has strong regulations in place to protect mining, the environment and workers.

“Adding another layer of federal regulations on top of that would have been duplicative and would have created a lot of red tape, a lot of unnecessary red tape for operations in the state of Montana,” said Eric Sell, Department of Justice.

Fox says the federal regulations would weaken state rules already in place. In turn, that could open the floodgates to harm the environment and workers the regulations are meant to protect.

The department of environmental quality is on board with AG Fox. A recent DEQ report says Montana has implemented "sound practices at rock hard mining facilities."

A juvenile has been arrested in connection with a shooting which happened last week in Ronan. The Ronan Police Department says the 16-year-old was wanted because of a November 15th shooting which occurred on the 300 block of 12th Avenue NW in Ronan According to Ronan Police, on November 17, 2018 a CSKT Tribal Officer saw the suspect in a vehicle in the Pablo area. The officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle to apprehend the 16 year old for the shooting inci...

A juvenile has been arrested in connection with a shooting which happened last week in Ronan. The Ronan Police Department says the 16-year-old was wanted because of a November 15th shooting which occurred on the 300 block of 12th Avenue NW in Ronan According to Ronan Police, on November 17, 2018 a CSKT Tribal Officer saw the suspect in a vehicle in the Pablo area. The officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle to apprehend the 16 year old for the shooting inci...